Iran negotiating with foreign company to restore drowned offshore platform

Iran is negotiating with a foreign company to restore a drowned offshore platform.

The project is estimated to cost around $5 million, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on April 9.

In January 2013, the $40-million engineering structure which was to be used on offshore platforms of Iran's South Pars gas field, sank into the Persian Gulf as it was being installed.

The incident occurred as the 1,850-tonne jacket developed for South Pars Phase 13 sank to a depth of 80 meters (264 feet), media reports said.

Once completed, Phase 13 is to produce around 56 million cubic meters of gas, 75,000 barrels of condensates, 2900 tons of LPG, 2750 tons of ethane, and 400 tons of sulfur per day.

The phase 13 development plan will cost $6.1 billion to complete.

Along with other industrial subsidiaries of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, engineering wing the Khatam al-Anbiya group, SADRA was awarded a $5-billion contract in 2010 to develop Phase 13 after Western energy majors withdrew over the sanctions.

Managing Director of the South Pars Gas Complex, Masoud Hasani, said on February 7, that 202 million cubic meters of gas per day is being pumped from the gas field to Iran's National gas network, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

"South Pars is one of the most important areas in the country's oil and gas sector," Hasani said.

"The field's total production currently stands at over 280 million cubic meters from which 202 million cubic meters is being pumped into the national gas network," he explained.

Iran is currently producing 300 mcm of gas per day from the South Pars.

The South Pars gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. North Dome, are in Qatar's territorial waters.